Art Beyond Proprietary Hardware: Building, Bending and Modifying Hardware for Artistic Purposes
The appearance and expression of new media artwork has always been subject of restrictions. The limitations are based on the standards of proprietary hard- and software products artists are using.
The best way to find an individual artistic expression while avoiding the industrial norm and expanding these boundaries is in using open source software and work with open hardware. Another opportunity would be to hack and modify consumer products for the artistic purposes.
Wolfgang Spahn shares his experiences of modifying hardware devices like projectors and interfaces he uses in his artwork. He also introduces his open hardware project on Paper-PCB’s like analog synthesizer, Arduino and Raspberry Pi projects, analog neuron networks and analog computer. All these hard and software designs are part and parcel of his media installations and performances.
Wolfgang Spahn is an Austrian-German visual artist based in Berlin. His work includes interactive installations, miniature-slide-paintings and performances of light & sound. His art explores the field of analogue and digital media and focusses on both their contradiction and their correlation. That’s why he is also specialized in re-appropriated and re-purposed electronic technologies.
Spahn’s immersive audio-visual performances merge the technically distinct production of images and sounds. In this respect the data stream of a digital projector becomes audible whereas the sound created by electromagnetic fields of coils and motors will be visualised.
For his creations he explores the abilities of hardware, constantly pushing its limitations in order to make it serve his artistic concept. Recently he developed analogue synthesizers as well as analogue computers and analog neuron networks and uses them to create abstract light-and-sound-sculptures.
Spahn teaches workshops and is associated lecturer at different Universitys. He presented his work in national and international exhibitions in Biennales, Museum, Galleries and Media Art Festivals.
Artist Web-Side: https://wolfgang-spahn.de/
Open Hard & Software: https://dernulleffekt.de/
Galerie Web-Side: https://art-claims-impulse.com/artists/wolfgang-spahn